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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Back in May I made a simple skirt for my niece Abby's birthday. I decided to make one EVEN simpler for her for Christmas. This is like the next easiest thing to sew compared to a square pillow. Seriously? Yes seriously! If you think elastic will be hard - I promise it is not.

My niece is 4 1/2 with a 21 inch waist. I wanted the finished skirt to be around 12 inches long.

Here are the instructions. Make sure to always back stitch. You will need fabric (amount depending on the size you plan to make), thread and 3/4 inch elastic.

1. Cut your fabric 2x the waist by how long you want the finished skirt plus 2 1/4 extra for hemming allowances.

2. Sew your short sides together (wrong sides together) with a 1/4in seam allowance. You will have the skirt circle when you are done.

3. Iron your hems at the top and bottom. Top: 1/4in and then 1in - this is your elastic casing. Bottom: 1/2in and then 1/2in.

4. Sew around your bottom hem just a tiny bit in from the edge.

5. Sew around your top hem for the elastic casing but leave an 1-2in opening so you will be able to put in the elastic.

6. Cut your elastic to about an inch more than the waist. Using a safety pin feed the elastic around by cinching it along. Overlap the ends so that you end up with a length of about 1 inch less than the waist (you want it to stay on and it is stretchy after all) and sew. I usually go over it twice just so it is very secure.

7. Sew up the opening you left in the casing.

AND YOU ARE DONE! See how easy was that?! And it really doesn't take much fabric. I got mine on sale at Hob Lob and I love the colors. It can be hard to see but the blue outlines are elephants! I'm sure glad I realized that before i started so I knew what should be the top and bottom.